Permanent Visitors by Kevin Moffett

Permanent Visitors, stories by Kevin Moffett (Iowa): In this funny and acutely perceptive debut collection, Moffett has an eye for the tragic that is also comic: a mother's unexpected death from a bad oyster is followed by the widower's hosting of a party of "challenged" youth; an émigré's desire for sex with "gazebo angels" runs counter to the sterile campus that houses the Institute for Advanced American Furtherance. In every story the voice is assured and yet keeps us off-balance. Overall, there is a wonderful symmetry between reckless storytelling and the momentary compensatory gesture, just as Moffett's characters are beginning to navigate the chaos of a strange but universal language. —Fred Leebron